Gas prices could hit $3 nationwide Memorial Day weekend

Javier Moore |Saturday, May 26, 2018

Craig F. Walker Globe Staff file

According to AAA, this weekend could see the highest number of travelers since 2005 when you include those traveling not only by vehicle but also by plane, train, bus and cruise ships. A spike in crude oil prices has lifted the national average price of gas by 31% over the past year to an average of $2.97 a gallon, according to AAA. "The vast majority of this year's Memorial Day journeys - almost 9 in 10 nationally - will be road trips on our highways", Moore said.

The current average price in the Chicago metro area is $3.29, compared with $3.14 a week ago and $2.63 at this time past year, according to AAA. The company's 2018 Summer Travel survey says only 58 percent said they will take a road trip this summer, a 24 percent drop from a year ago. Some were as high as $3.29 a gallon, like at the Marathon Gas Station off Dutchman's Lane in St. Matthews, or as low as $2.89 a gallon like at the Meijer and Marathon-Circle K in Jeffersontown.

The second reason is crude oil prices, which hit $80 per barrel for the US recently, a 50 percent increase compared to 2017.

In 2014, there were 9,967 fatalities in crashes involving a driver with a BAC of.08 or higher, accounting for 31 percent of total traffic fatalities for the year, according to AAA. Brent crude, the global benchmark that tends to influence United States gas prices, recently topped $80 a barrel.

Gas prices in North Carolina are at their highest level since November of 2014.

Several factors have helped drive oil prices higher, including a wave of global economic growth has driven up demand for oil.

President Trump exits Iran deal: U.S. oil prices topped $70 a barrel earlier this month just as President Trump announced the United States is withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal.

"This could be the high-water mark for the driving season", he said.

As of Thursday, motorists are paying an average of $3.72 a gallon at the pump in California.

But even as the prices are surging, there are ways to save at the pump.

A record number of Americans are traveling this weekend for the Memorial Day holiday. "That sticker shock to the American family could get worse". Goldman Sachs recently suggested President Trump could tap the emergency stockpile of oil stored in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to make up for the loss of Iranian production.

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